Establishment and restoration of biocenters and Territorial System of Ecological Stability (TSES) elements in the Drnholec cadastre

The key objective of this complex landscape project is the establishment of a basic structure of the TSES system along with restoration of a number of habitats in the cultural landscape which was originally characterized by habitat diversity. The cadastre, on which the project focuses, is subject to intensive farming and its large areas have been transformed into a cultural steppe with a severely limited biodiversity.

The establishment of TSES elements will positively enhance the ecosystem character at the landscape level. The proposed and implemented measures will decrease the velocity and desiccating effect of winds, reduce the destructiveness of rainstorms, decrease the temperature sum in the vegetation period or improve the moisture regime.

A radical improvement in biodiversity can be expected in all groups of living organisms. The biological function of permanent high and low vegetation habitats will be restored in the landscape. The landscape permeability for migration of all groups of autochthonous plants and animals will be enhanced, along with conditions of specific sites in the form of food supply and nesting opportunities. Thanks to succession processes a number of species will find ideal conditions to enhance and stabilize their populations along with possibilities to occupy newly established ecological niches. The possibilities of increasing numbers of individuals, primarily in songbird, owl and raptor populations, will be widened in the vicinity of farming facilities and municipalities.

Cultivation and harvesting measures taken in the municipal forest stands represent an important follow-up project. The municipality of Drnholec took the decision to eliminate the danger of non-indigenous tree species spread into the newly established TSES and to create refuges for the development of invertebrate and fungi species in ancient and rotting trees and stumps.